Pressure group the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), is asking the government to set-up an independent commission of enquiry to investigate the allocation of state lands and government assets to private individuals. It said such a commission should examine the legality of all such acquisitions. The issue of state lands being taken over by private citizens has created a lot of controversy in recent times. The CJA called a news conference in Accra Thursday and accused officials and functionaries of the Kufuor administration of selfishly grabbing state lands whilst the Mills government is allocating the lands without recourse to the Constitution. The convener of the press conference, Kwasi Adu, said the acquisition of parcels of state lands by the Chief Justice, Justice Theodora Wood and other members of the judiciary and raised doubts about her ability to handle land issues in the country fairly if they come to the courts. The Member of Parliament for Adansi/Asokwa, Mr KT Hammond welcomes the call to set-up the enquiry. He however wants the mandate of any such commission of enquiry to stretch their work from 1980 till date, to deal honestly and extensively with the nagging problems of land distribution. That way, he argued, the Ghanaian will be adequately informed on the trend of land distribution in the country and those who have assumed a saintly posture on the subject will be exposed. Mr Hammond said he was revolted at the government’s attempts to use the coercive machinery of the state to confiscate lands legally acquired by some individuals just in furtherance of the ruling party’s political agenda. The Chairman of the Lands Commission Board, Nana Adjei told Joy News that the commission conducted some investigations into the allocation of government lands starting from the previous NDC government. He said the investigations revealed that while some allocations were done properly, others were inconsistent with the laws of the land. “So we said those that were tainted with illegality and immorality should be returned to the state,” he said. Source: Joy News/Ghana